6 easy ways to start Tweeting

Have you started Tweeting? Have you started and then stopped? No worries. Everyone needs a nudge sometimes.

The idea for this post came from a nudge I gave one of my clients. He set himself up with a Twitter account a few months ago. But instead of diving in, he started by following some people, businesses and organizations and watched their Twitter behaviour. He was trying to learn “the right way” to use Twitter.

I think learning the etiquette of a platform is really important and I even encouraged him to spend an afternoon looking at people’s feeds, finding out his likes and dislikes about how people use the tool and watching interactions between people. But eventually, you just have to give it a try and see what happens. There is no “right way”, but the more you use it, the more you know what’s right for you (more on that in another post.)

Anyway, a couple of months went by and I noticed that my client was still just watching the tweets go by. I nudged him to “get in the conversation.” He really appreciated the advice I gave him to get him going, so I’m sharing it with you.

Stop being precious – just tweet! What ever you write will disappear on people’s feeds in no time and the more you tweet the faster things disappear on your profile page too.

Painters who wait for the perfect idea never paint anything. The ones who paint every day produce enough work (good and bad) that through simple odds they are going to create a ton of great work, and the boring stuff soon fades into the background. Stop waiting for your perfect tweet!

6 Easy Ways to Start Tweeting (or End Tweeter’s Block)

Ask questions – Use a question to get people thinking about something, or to genuinely ask for input.
Tweet: Who tells people they can’t make mistakes? No one. So why do we think that?

Offer an answer – think about the articles on your blog as answers to questions. Pose the question on Twitter with a link to the article as your answer.
Tweet: Does exercise really boost brain power? Yes, the research is in http://ow.ly/2k4g3

Make a funny quipout of a reminder – remind people about something, but make it light and fun.
Tweet: “It’s 3:00. Do you know where your water glass is?”

Retweet something – it is so easy to just share something interesting you read in your feed (and promote someone else in the process).

Share little moments – something about your work life or your home life to give people a glimpse of what’s up with you. Don’t bother with every detail of your day, but little moments here and there help people feel connected.
Tweet: “Daddy, Mommy is so funny. She told the neighbours she has a 40 year old baby.” Yes, my friend’s 5-year old just said that to him. Hehehe.

Share research – if you look something up online share the link. Why not? You’ve done the work. Share it.
Tweet: cool picture guide to making great coffee with a French Press http://coffeegeek.com/guides/presspot

Bottom lone: JUST TWEET SOMETHING.

My client and I have since talked a fair amount about strategies he can use to make the most of his Twitter time. He uses it pretty regularly now to sign people up for his newsletter, send them to his bog and website, or just to stay connected and visible.

If you are using Twitter as part of a campaign strategy and you find yourself getting blocked, refocus on the thoughts or actions you would ideally like to spark in people. Drift happens. Re-focusing on your goals can get you through just about any campaign blocks.

If you are still stuck, use the list above. In 15 minutes or less, find a way to use each strategy to communicate something that supports your campaign goal. Once you’ve done that, you’ll have written 6 tweets and guess what, you’ll have broken your Tweeter’s block.

I must say that I love Twitter. Perhaps it’s partly from working alone. I love the fact that you can tweet and get instant responses from all over the world. You’re never alone in Twitterville!

And Twitter has been great for building my author’s platform (i.e. getting my name out there) as well as expanding my research base. I can’t imagine how any writer in today’s world can function without it!